Category Archives: finance and insurance

Train whistles and futures

Posted on 14 December 2014 by Laleh Khalili

I am reading two books simultaneously through both of which trains rattle and whistle and snake…  But which in some ways are as different as they can be.  Bill Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis is a panoramic history of the making of Chicago in the … Continue reading →

Posted in capital accumulation, construction, environment, finance and insurance, infrastructure, labour, literature, political economy, transport | Leave a comment

The blue banana

Posted on 14 November 2014 by Laleh Khalili

Last week, huge protests took place in Brussels, with the trade unions reporting some 130,000-150,000 people showing up; and major clashes with the police.  The protests in fact have been going on for some time now.  And in the April … Continue reading →

Posted in capital accumulation, finance and insurance, infrastructure, labour, logistics, political economy, ports, transport, war | Leave a comment

Mohammad Al Fayed and the ports business

Posted on 22 September 2014 by Laleh Khalili

It seems like Mohammad al-Fayed (of Harrod’s fame – and obviously many other ventures) was also in the port business.   In 1964, he entered a deal with Papa Doc Duvalier of Haiti, whereby he invested $5 million in the … Continue reading →

Posted in capital accumulation, construction, finance and insurance, infrastructure, logistics, Middle East, political economy, ports | Leave a comment

Transport capital

Posted on 30 May 2014 by Laleh Khalili

There is a lot to chew on here, but this sentence really struck me: “As for finance, there’s been no tendency for its executives’ pay to outpace that of nonfinancial executives. On the contrary: even during the bubble years of the 2000s, … Continue reading →

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Piracy and Counter-piracy

Posted on 18 April 2014 by Laleh Khalili

There is a kind of romance around piracy.  It is the romance of anti-authority figures and of a life lived not just in the margins but outside the boundaries.   Just think about the masses of novels and films about piracy … Continue reading →

Posted in finance and insurance, logistics, piracy, political economy, ports, readings, shipping conditions, ships, transport | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Sailing on dhows and working in the auto industry

Posted on 15 April 2014 by Laleh Khalili

  A facebook friend sent me a URL to a blogpost which introduced Sons of Sinbad by Alan Villiers…  What struck me was the contention that the book was “probably the only work of western travel literature that focuses on the seafarers of … Continue reading →

Posted in finance and insurance, labour, Middle East, political economy, readings, seafaring, shipping conditions, ships, the sea, transport | Leave a comment